22 



rich the soil for the thorns, when it is thin and poor, on 

 such elevations *. In regard to the square form, an op- 

 portunitj is thereby afforded, of ploughing in every di- 

 rection, when necessary, and less time is lost in carrying 

 on all the operations of husbandry in a field of that form, 

 than of any other shape. 



UNIFORMITY OF SOIL. 



An intelligent farmer laments, that the inclosures 

 on his farm are laid out, more with a view to beauty 

 than utility, and that regularity and uniformity of ap- 

 pearance have been chiefly attended to, whilst little re 

 gard has been paid to a point infinitely more essential, 

 that of having the several fields of the same sort of soil , 

 hence soils of the most heterogeneous nature are thus un- 

 fortunately comprised in the same field. Another far- 

 mer complains, that this principle has been so little at- 

 tended to on his farm ; that he has ridges, one half con- 

 sisting of a strong wet clay, and the other half of a 

 sandy soil, fit for turnips. A spirited correspondent 

 proposes to obviate this objection, by altering the tex- 

 ture of the soil. He observes, that there are fields, 

 partly consisting of strong soils, and partly of light, 

 where probably there are not above one or two acres of 

 the latter, for ten or twenty of the former ; and where 

 almost every year the culmiferous crops fail on the 

 light soils from drought. He therefore suggests, that 

 at any slack time, whether in winter or summer, when 

 the field is under fallow, it would be proper to employ 

 two carts and horses, with four fillers, and to cover the 



Remark by Mr Church, Mitchell, near Annan. 



